The performance and audio-video installation
I am the River at Pawilon Poznań was an artistic-activist action aimed at drawing attention to the catastrophic state of rivers in Poznań, Poland, and around the world. Our activist work stems from a deep concern for the rivers and, consequently, for our future. As artists equipped with the tools of art, strengthened by a political message about the ecological crisis, we cannot and do not want to idly watch the destruction of rivers, of which we are a part. Rivers will survive without us, but we cannot survive without them.
I am the River at Pawilon Poznań was an artistic-activist action aimed at drawing attention to the catastrophic state of rivers in Poznań, Poland, and around the world. Our activist work stems from a deep concern for the rivers and, consequently, for our future. As artists equipped with the tools of art, strengthened by a political message about the ecological crisis, we cannot and do not want to idly watch the destruction of rivers, of which we are a part. Rivers will survive without us, but we cannot survive without them.
In our installation and performance, we used field recordings from the banks of the Cybina River. The costumes and set design were made from upcycled plastic. The performance incorporates experimental choreographic practices, drawing inspiration from Butoh dance and baroque dances from an era whose symbolic abundance of objects now reminds us of the „wealth” of plastic waste flowing down our rivers. We aim to radically redirect attention to the River, while naming humanity as the cause of the climate crisis and the anthropocene as the era of ecological catastrophe.
Concept: Mo Tomaszewska, Lukas Wojcicki, Jagoda Witkowska
Performance and Choreography: Mo Tomaszewska, Lukas Wojcicki
Costumes, Set Design: Mo Tomaszewska
Curatoress: Jagoda Witkowska
Musical arrangement and performance text based on excerpts
from Astrida Neimanis’ essay „Hydrofeminism: Or, On Becoming a Body of Water”,
translated by Sławomir Królak, Dwutygodnik, 2020: Lukas Wojcicki
About the performance: https://culture.pl/pl/artykul/woda-to-medium-troski-hydrofeminizm-i-zlewisko-sztuk
Performance and Choreography: Mo Tomaszewska, Lukas Wojcicki
Costumes, Set Design: Mo Tomaszewska
Curatoress: Jagoda Witkowska
Musical arrangement and performance text based on excerpts
from Astrida Neimanis’ essay „Hydrofeminism: Or, On Becoming a Body of Water”,
translated by Sławomir Królak, Dwutygodnik, 2020: Lukas Wojcicki
About the performance: https://culture.pl/pl/artykul/woda-to-medium-troski-hydrofeminizm-i-zlewisko-sztuk